Extinguishing concerns that Dartmouth only turns out lawyers and investment bankers, a number of this year's grduating seniors have begun work in a very different field: making movies.
Charles Divak
One of the founding members of DTV, Charles Divak '00 said the film-making process is very time-consuming but well worth the effort, especially when the finished product is shown on screen.
As part of his Film Studies 32 class, Divak wrote, directed and shot a five minute film entitled "Bob Bean," in which someone dressed up as a giant rabbit goes around and makes trouble. According to Divak, the idea for the film came to him after using the same rabbit suit for a program on DTV.
The tone of the film is "funny, but documentary," according to the director.
"There were a lot of considerations in shooting the film," Divak said, adding that setting up the correct lighting always took some thought.
The finished product will consist of four tracks, one of which will be the actual picture and three of which will be sound tracks.
As someone who plans on going into advertising or television after graduation, Divak said making his own films was a "great way to learn" about the industry.
"Bob Bean" was screened as part of the Student Film Festival on June 3, along with the films made by many other students.
Todd Garfield
A senior who has taken a slightly different approach to the film studies field is Todd Garfield, who just recently finished his senior fellowship in animation.
His year-long project is a character gag-based flick called "Remote Out of Control," an eight minute cartoon heavily influenced by classic Warner Brothers cartoons.
For the animation short, Garfield used two characters of his own invention, an aardvark and an armadillo named Hoover and Trout.
The plotline revolves around the two characters' struggle for control of the TV remote, which somehow causes them to appear in the programs they were watching.
Garfield said this cartoon was "a huge, huge leap up" from the other films he has done, which include a parody of the story of the frog prince and a parody of Alfred Hitchcock films.
To finish the project, Garfield spent 65 hours taking pictures of all the drawings he had done and then recorded music and sound effects for the film.
After graduation, Garfield said he will go to work for the Cartoon Network in Los Angeles, the same company he interned at last summer. In his new position, he will begin work as a production assistant on a soon to be specified show.
Describing the animation process, Garfield said "It is a way to work things out. It gets very tedious and technical," but added that, "The most rewarding part is seeing it on screen and hearing people laugh when they're supposed to."
However, Garfield admitted that he has a difficult time watching his own films because he tends to get knit-picky about certain parts.
Despite this, he said he likes every aspect of the animation field and would like to create his own series one day.
Tom Kim
Tom Kim '00 is another senior who has developed his interest in film and animation by working through the Film and Television Studies department at Dartmouth.
A studio art and psychology double major, Kim said that although "he has always been interested in film," he wasn't able to fit in film studies classes until just recently.
Some of his projects include a five minute movie which he made for Filmmaking 1 and a three minute cartoon for Animation 35.
The cartoon, entitled "Our Grape Attention Span," consists of about 1,100 drawings and is based on the exploits of a main character who looks much like a walking grape.
Although Kim isn't certain of his future in film, he said he certainly wouldn't mind drawing for a show like "The Simpsons."
Dan Powell
Kim's most recent work is a collaboration with Dan Powell '00, involving elements of both animation and film blended together into what Kim describes as a "nine minute multimedia film," and Powell calls "storybook animation."
Powell himself has been working all term on a 35-minute film which he wrote and directed, in addition to working with Kim on the multimedia film.
Powell wrote the script for "Ambition," a dark comedy, last summer, and ended up rewriting parts of it five times
Although he has worked on other projects such as videos for Sheba and training videos for the Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center, Powell conceded that doing a longer film is much more difficult.
"Continuity is a huge concern," he said, explaining that this wasn't something he had to worry about when he directed the shorter pieces. "The hardest part is maintaining a narrative flow to the film."
Another, more concrete consideration is respecting brand names and copyrights.
"It's very difficult to shoot a film as a student," Powell said. "You can't have any brand names. Everything has to be your own."
The director recounted one time when a scene in the movie required a ketchup bottle to be shown in plain view. Powell designed his own ketchup logo to go on the bottle to make the idea workable.
Looking back on the project, which is nearly complete except for a musical score, Powell said that although he still likes his writing, he feels his directing could have been vastly improved.
Because the film is very dialogue-heavy, Powell said he concentrated too much on the acting in some scenes and not enough on getting moving camera shots. As a result, he thinks some of the best scenes from the movie are the ones without dialogue.
But despite his own perceived shortcomings of the film, Powell said he is very glad he did it.
A working print of the movie was shown at the senior film festival yesterday. However, Powell said will probably have a hard time watching it.
"When you don't think it's as good as it could have been, it's difficult to watch it in front of other people," he said.
Powell, who plans to be in New York City after he graduates to pursue a career in film, said his main focus is scriptwriting. According to Powell, writing for the Jack-O-Lantern humor magazine, for which he was the Editor-in-Chief for two years, has had the most impact on his comedy writing abilities and has sparked his initial interest in the field.
Looking to the future, Powell said, "I want to improve my skills for a few years before I try to sell anything. It'll be awhile before I feel I'm living up to my potential."
Bert Sperling
Another senior who is currently working on a live-action film is Bert Sperling '00, whose movie-in-progress, "Analog Love," is a surreal piece drawing from the "film noire" flicks of the forties and fifties.
An important component of the piece is the background music that Sperling composed himself for the movie, influenced by his experience as a guitarist in the campus band Urine Tenant.
Next year, Sperling plans on continuing with his interest in film by working as an assistant in the Film Studies department.
Tracey Deer
Tracey Deer '00 has taken yet another approach to the filmmaking field.
Deer has worked on two major projects within the past year. The first is a black and white documentary that follows a student through his preparation for a drag ball and the ball itself, which the student ends up winning.
The second project is an experimental piece that uses a combination of photography, video and film to tell a story. The film serves as a social commentary on casual sex from the point of view of a woman, Deer said.
When asked about what sparked her interest in film, Deer said, "I've known forever. I've always been playing with a video camera."
Deer described her early film influences as being "pretty mainstream," but said she has since moved away from that area of film culture. Her favorite movie is "Citizen Kane," although she likes other films that experiment with cinematography.
Deer said one of the major influences in her fledgling film career was a documentary class that she took with visiting professor Mark Decker.
Deer said her ultimate goal in film is to make documentaries that tell the stories of Native Americans, a goal she will pursue next year by working in the news broadcast field in Montreal.
Another senior female involved with film is Julie Sagalowsky, whose major project is a black and white film short about a reoccurring nightmare in which the main character's teeth fall out.
The film, entitled "Losing It," is image-based and involves many montage shots, Sagalowsky said.
Although she played a role in the film, Sagalowsky said she enjoyed editing the piece the most.
As a drama major, Sagalowsky attributed much of her interest in film to drama and acting, although she added that she has always loved movies.
Sagalowsky is planning to move to Austin, Texas, to pursue her interest in film and drama next year.
